Last week, in an effort to iron out some stomach woes, I gave up coffee, even the decaf variety. This meant switching to tea, because no hot drinks was not an option in January. I like tea, but was in the mood for something robust and filling, so I decided chai fit the bill.

The chai at Starbucks and readily available in concentrate form is good, but not vegan. The chai in teabags is decent, but not amazing. To make chai from scratch each time is admirable, but not realistic! Thus, I decided to make my own chai concentrate. I’m still adjusting the recipe, but this is what I have right now.

Note: I like my chai like I like my… um… tea -spicy and sweet. Adjust as needed.

Kiss Me Organics recently contacted me to see if I wanted to review their organic matcha green tea. The tea is only available at Amazon right now, and I had seen it before there while browsing for matcha, but I hadn’t tried it. So, I readily agreed!

If you haven’t had matcha before, it can be a bit of a surprise. It’s a very “grassy” tasting tea, has a pretty hefty amount of caffeine punch, and is really green. Matcha is pretty much the only tea that I sweeten, because of the strong green flavor.

I generally like matcha best either as a hot latte drink or a frozen latte drink, and I found that this matcha was no exception. Those were my favorite ways to prepare it. I liked it a bit less as an iced latte, but mostly because I heated some water to dissolve the tea, and then when the ice and soy milk were added, it became too watery for me.

For each of the frozen matcha lattes (pictured above), I used two cups of soy milk, 1.5 slightly rounded teaspoons of matcha, ½ scoop of vegan protein powder, and a teaspoon of agave syrup. I blended all of that first until well mixed. Then I added a pinch of xanthum gum (for texture) and ice cubes and blended (using my well-loved Vitamix) to a nice texture. Super tasty.

Matcha powder isn’t inexpensive, and this is no exception. But, a little goes a long way, so this pouch will last through many cups of tea, in whatever form you like. It can also be used for baking. The recipe guide they send to first time customers has a lot of interesting recipes to try matcha in. I haven’t tried them yet, but there is time, however, because I’ll be buying it again.